1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to VLSI device layout data structures, and more particularly to reducing the size and complexity of the data structure.
2. Background Art
Current manufacturing techniques for fabricating VLSI devices require the insertion of non-functional structures, commonly known as dummy features, in order to ensure the planarity of subsequent dielectric and conductive layers in locations where there is no circuitry. VLSI layers commonly populated with these dummy features include the metal, polysilicon and field isolation layers. These dummy features are normally electrically non-functional, although they may be interconnected between different layers, and in some cases dummy features have been used to alter the capacitance of some functional elements. All dummy features used within a layer are normally, but not always, identical.
Depending on the application, data structures of the multiple layers of the VLSI device may be generated from the physical device to verify the circuit design or for the reverse-engineering extraction of the circuitry. These data structures are normally constructed in a vector-based format, known commonly in the industry as GDSII. The dummy features, if not removed from the generated data structure, add more complexity to signal tracing and/or analysis of the circuits; and reduce the clarity with which multiple layers may be seen when overlaid. Additionally they significantly increase the size of the already large vector-based data structures, without significantly adding function. When processing these data structures to recognize function, dummy features add needless processing time.
There exists in the art a method to compress the dummy features in a vector-based data structure to reduce the size of the data. U.S. Pat. No. 6,594,801, which issued to Dishon et al. on Jul. 15, 2003, provides a loss-less method for compressing a data structure representing a layout of a multi-layered VLSI device. This method comprises the steps of (a) generating compressed non-functional element data structures that represent each of the non-functional elements of each layer within the layout data structure, (b) deleting representations of non-functional elements from the layout data structure and (c) adding the compressed non-functional element data structures to generate a compressed data structure representing the layout. While this technique does reduce the amount of data in the data structure, it is a complex compression process requiring intensive computing power. Further, as the technique is directed towards the re-use of the non-functional elements, the method simply compresses the data within the vector-based data structure but does not remove the non-functional elements. The non-functional elements are still present in the data structure and needlessly increase its size and processing time. Furthermore, when the data structure for the entire IC from this method is visualized, the lower metal layers of connectivity are obscured by the dummy features on the upper levels. This complicates signal tracing and analysis for an observer. Still furthermore, the method does not teach how to locate the non-functional elements within the data structure, and as such would not be useful in data structures other than GDSII format data structures.
Therefore there is a need for a method and apparatus to remove dummy features from data structures.